Minerva’s 2016 Oscars Guide

I’ve always been a fan of the Oscars, although I haven’t always watched the movies. There’s something about knowing about the movies and having an opinion on what should win that appeals to me. (I think mostly I just like judging stuff and it’s easy to have opinions on movies.)

In 2011, I attended the AMC Best Picture Showcase for the first time. This an event that offers up all Best Picture nominations in a span of 24 hours. The first time I did it, I thought it might be a mind numbing, horrible experience. But I’ve been known to go up for crazy road trips and other events that cause sleep deprivation, so I was down.

This year was the fifth time I’ve gone to one of these and I love them every year. Although the Oscars have lost a lot of their glamour for me–I honestly considered boycotting this year because of the #OscarsSoWhite thing and the appalling lack of diversity in the nominees–some of the movies are always worth watching and the others are worth hating on. (In the past, I have suffered through films like War Horse and Wolf of Wall Street, which are both objectively terrible in my opinion.)

Interested in making your way through all Best Picture nominees in 24 hours? Here’s a brief look into what it’s like:

10:32 a.m. The AMC was impossible to find so my dad, my husband, and I ended up arriving for the whole thing a couple minutes late and were those asshole climbing into our seats in the dark. That meant I missed the first couple minutes of Brooklyn, but luckily there wasn’t much to miss early on.

If you’re planning on doing this, I would not recommend this approach. Plan better and make sure you show up early. Also, prepare by hiding things in a purse. I always bring contact solution and my glasses for when it gets late, plus a toothbrush. If you indulge in the large popcorn and sodas that earn you free refills (and honestly being in a movie for 24 hours is the only time that offer is worth anything), you’ll definitely need to brush the fuzz out at some point.

12:23 p.m. What a great little film! Eilis wore the same outfits multiple times like a real person and not a movie person. Not tired yet. This will certainly change soon.

Concerning diversity watch, the only POC were background extras who didn’t talk and although an Irish woman realistically wouldn’t have much to do with POC, it was a super white film. Lots of women taking and their relationships though, which is always a thing that Minerva appreciates.

We’re already talking about what snacks we’re going to indulge in.

2:50 p.m. The Big Short just ended. I now hate the world. There were at least a couple POC in this movie, no ladies, but I don’t know how it could help it, as it was based on the actions of white guys, so I’ll give it a bit of a pass. It did do a good job explaining complicated stuff to a broad audience.

We are officially hungry as all get out.

5:17 p.m. Just watched Room. Holy shit that movie was intense as hell. Really really good but damn that would be tough to watch again. More white people but at least the cop and doctor were POC?

After eating a sandwich, feeling pretty good. We’re trying to convince my dad to buy us snacks. Not tired yet, but just three movies in.

More emotionally tough stuff to go. Mad Max will be a nice reprieve.

6:12 p.m. Just learned The Revenant is almost 3 hours long. Gross.

One thing this event offers up that’s nice is an hour break at one point so people can go out and get dinner. This year it feels like it happened too early but we’re in a mall and the food court will shut down before the next movie is over. Doesn’t this mall know I’m grad school and regularly eat dinner after 10 p.m.?

8:55 p.m. Not as long as we thought but it felt long. We had a hard time suspending disbelief on that one because Leo’s character should have died like eight times in that film. Ultimately it was like, “Angsty white man wants revenge.” I wanted it to be about the Native Americans, not Leo DiCaprio.

I’m tired now. In need of caffeine.

11:36 p.m. Spotlight just ended. I’m pretty sure we have lost all faith in humanity. Apparently the world is full of shitty people who do nothing but cover up hour everything is getting fucked over.

Side note: watching as a Bostonian was super interesting. They got the Dunkin Donuts thing bang on.

Tired but too worked up to sleep.

2 a.m.Mad Max is just as frickin’ crazy as remembered. I napped a bit through it because I’d already seen it twice and having my eyes closed meant I noticed the music a lot more, which was surprisingly good.

Talking about it with Scott, both of us are noticing how almost all the movies this year are making comments about how fucked up the world is and Mad Max actually fits with that theme pretty well. The world got destroyed and the team overthrows the unjust shit. Also, I still want to be Furiosa.

The contacts are officially coming out. The concession stand unfortunately has fresh coffee but no fresh tea. I tried to buy some bottled sweet tea (doing this event in Texas) but discovered that I hate sweet tea. So I drank a 5 hour energy instead. I highly, highly recommended chugging one of these late at night

4:41 a.m.Bridge of Spies didn’t have a lot of bridges but it did have some spies. I love Mark Rylance, because he was so freaking great in Wolf Hall, so that was nice. Solid film, but it felt a lot safer than the other films. At times, it felt a bit aimless and the woman playing Hanks’ wife was the dictionary definition of “thankless role” which culminated in her staring at him lovingly while he slept.

Talk about a lot of white people!

I was tired enough to only snooze for about five minutes while they were on the bridge of spies, which tells you how little that figured into the movie.

Most of the theater seems to be sleeping at this point and as usual, a fair number of people have actually just straight up left. Do people pay for this and then decide not to see it through? Happens every year.

Without tea to see me through, I decided to refill my Icee cup to get a caffeine boost during The Martian.

Good a second time around and a good end cap choice. One of the more diverse and gender equal movies although Mindy Park should be Korean and I’ll defend that to my dying day.

And no, it’s not based on a true story.

We’re not as completely exhausted as I have been in the past. It helped that it was only eight films. In past years, we’ve watched nine or ten, and that for some reason makes you way more tired at the end of the whole thing.